Article Tools

In the July issue of Elle magazine, the Editor’s Letter reads, “Unemployment hovers around 9 percent, and people feel they can no longer afford the luxury of trying to live consciously.” Roberta Myers, editor-in-chief of Elle, penned this in the magazine’s green issue. This got me thinking: Isn’t this the ideal time to be conscious of the way in which we live?

Unemployment is a huge problem in the United States—yet we seem to miss the point. Shouldn’t making less money drive us toward consuming less and wasting less?

Living consciously is not a luxury; it requires commitment and creativity. If we choose to “go green,” we have to change our mentality, a hard thing to do when we’re accustomed to seemingly unlimited water running from our sinks and great access to gasoline and energy. Budgets should start to convert us into semi-environmentalists. Things as common as long showers, bottled water, and leaving the lights on should be concerns of ours at this critical stage in our economy.

During tough times, we are challenged as thinkers and workers to come up with and produce solutions to our problems. The environment, as well as the economy, challenge our ability to adapt. The decision to live green—or not—is often presented grimly as a life-or-death choice, and there could come a day when we will be saddened to hear that it’s too late to make the change. But for now, we still have every day to correct and continue our practices toward a happier Earth.

Green ideas have been seeping into many aspects of our lives. I’m often surprised when I don’t find a recycling bin in a home. Sometimes I’ll even ask if I’m mistaken and there actually is a recycling bin somewhere in the vicinity. An owner will get embarrassed if caught without one (this has happened). It’s more than a trend. It’s the lifestyle of our near future.

With change in our pockets and productive minds, we should welcome this inevitable shift. The economy is pushing us to go green, and the media is pushing us to go green. Not until I read Myers’s opinion did I think that we were still having doubts about being green. Are we retrograding into the thoughts of those two decades ago?

When green was not so big as it is now—and gas prices weren’t so high—we weren’t called upon to think so much about “living consciously.” Let’s kill two birds with one stone: Take advantage of the unemployment rate to begin living in a different way, preferably green. Now is the time to put our time and energy into our majestic environment.

Reducing waste is always economical, and frequently green. But I do indeed hope the economy is forcing us to "retrograde into the thoughts of those two decades ago." Faced with tough times, these dinosaurs from ancient times would have long ago eliminated wasteful green subsidies for things like corn based ethanol. And they didn't let the media do their thinking for them, and "push them to be green" just because its trendy. Alas, these dinosaurs from two decades ago are close to extinction.

Several studies from the failed green job initiatives in europe point out that it is indeed a failed policy. In Spain for every green job 2.2 real jobs were lost. Now Great Britain has data demonstrating that in that country each green job destroyed 3.1 real jobs.

"Several studies from the failed green job initiatives in europe point out that it is indeed a failed policy. In Spain for every green job 2.2 real jobs were lost."-- jukin

That Spanish study has been debunked by the US DOE, the WSJ, etc. The author of the study has been roundly criticized for his unorthodox research methods and lack of peer review. He also works for an organization that is funded by oil companies

Being green is living with less, not cool hybrids, sexy solar panels on your roof, and the latest tankless hot water heater. All my years in the solar field I see people who spend gobs of money on solar and on other green things, only so they can continue to be gluttens but also have bragging rights at their wine parties. Beer is so out if your green. Signed, my customers make me want to puke, so I quit the business.